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William and Hiley were brothers. William lived at “Stoneborough House” between about 1909 and 1919(1), and Hiley lived in or owned “Green Bushes” on West Hill from about 1919 to at least 1934 (1,2).  The family originated from Henry Addington who had been created 1st Viscount Sidmouth during a career that encompassed posts as Speaker of the House of Commons, Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary (3).

William Leonard Addington

William was born in Egg Buckland near Plymouth in 1856.  He was the eldest son of the Hon. Leonard Allen Addington who in 1853 married Latitia Anne Clarke the youngest daughter of Erving Clarke of Efford Manor (4).  William’s father Leonard was the third son of William Addington who became the 2nd Viscount Sidmouth on the death of his father Henry. 

Leonard Allen Addington was a Captain in the Royal Artillery and in 1861 the family were living in Emma Place, East Stonehouse.  Father Leonard sold his commission in December 1868, retiring with the rank of Major (5).  He was living in Salcombe with his family in 1881 and was a JP. He became a Deputy Lieutenant of the County in April 1887 and died at the age of 60 in 1888 in Wimple (3).

William was sent to Sherborne School; he left in 1871 and later joined the Northampton & Rutland Militia as a Sub-Lieutenant, being promoted to Lieutenant in November 1875.  In 1878 he transferred to the 2nd Regiment of Foot as a Second Lieutenant, and in March 1881 he moved to the 1st Battalion of the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment as a Lieutenant.  He was promoted to Captain in June 1888 (6).  He married Augusta Hayter-Hames in Chagford in the summer of 1890(7) and at the census the following year they were living in Wonersh near Guildford (the Regimental Head Quarters) with a baby daughter. 

In the 1890s William was in India and served with the Chitral Relief Column in 1895.  The Column was sent to relieve the fort at Chitral, in the foot hills of the Hindu Kush, which was under siege after a coup.  A relief force commanded by Major General Low went in from the south and routed the main body of the enemy.  Addington was promoted to Major in 1897 and between 1897 and 1898 was involved in the North West Frontier Campaign and served in the Tirah Expedition 1897-98 (medal with clasp). 

In 1901 William was away from his wife and family and she was boarding in her home town of Chagford with daughter Mary and son Leonard; he was probably in India as the 1st Battalion were still there. He retired from the army in 1903 and moved to Budleigh at some time between 1906 and 1910, when he, his wife Augusta, and seven year old daughter Stella, were living at “Stoneborough House”.  William rejoined his regiment during the First World War and the address on his Medal Card is recorded as “Montrose” in Budleigh Salterton.  He died in Budleigh in late 1919 at the age of 63. His wife may have moved to live at “Cotfield” in Victoria Place as there is an entry for a Mrs Addington in Kelly’s Directory for 1926.

Hiley Reginald Addington

Born in August 1861 in Stonehouse, Plymouth, he was a younger son of Leonard and Latitia Addington.  At the time of the 1871 census he was living in Folkestone with his mother and four sisters and his father was away from home.  He attended the Royal Military Academy then joined the 9th Regiment of Foot as a Second Lieutenant on 11th August 1880 but transferred to the 60th Foot on the 28th (5,6).  He was a Lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps by the 1st July 1881 (the Regiment having changed its name).  The Regiment was involved in the first Boer War (1880-1), the 3rd Burma War (1885-6), and the second Boer War (1899-1902) however there is no evidence either way if he was engaged in these conflicts. He is not to be found in the 1881 and 1891 censuses so may well have been out of the country. 

In 1893 he married Ella Beatrix Priaulx in the St. George’s Hanover Square District in London.  She was born in Queensland Australia and appears with him in the 1901 census living in Alverstoke on the west side of Portsmouth harbour.  He was a Major by then.  They had a son Rupert born in Cape Colony in 1899 which suggests that Hiley was probably in South Africa with his regiment during the 2nd Boer War.  By the time of the 1911 census he had retired and was living at “Green Bushes” in Budleigh Salterton.  His brother had previously retired to the town. Son Rupert was at Middleton School near Bognor in Sussex in 1911.

Like his brother, Hiley was involved in some capacity with his old regiment during WW1, and his military record gives his address as 3 Christchurch Road, Winchester in 1919 &1920.  Winchester was the garrison headquarters of the Regiment.  After the war he stayed on at “Green Bushes” on West Hill until about 1934(1,2) although the house appears to have been rented out for some of this time because in 1926 “William Alexander Willock Lieutenant Commander R.N. of Green Bushes, Budleigh Salterton, Devonshire, and of H.M.S. P.O. 74, The Dockyard, Portsmouth, Hampshire” was a creditor in a bankruptcy case in Exeter (5). 

The Addingtons moved to 38 Roland Gardens, South Kensington in 1934.  Hiley died in Kensington in 1940 and his wife continued to live at that address till 1957.  Their son Rupert appears to have inherited “Green Bushes” because he is in the local telephone directories from 1951 till 1967 (as Major RHP Addington).  When his stepdaughter Florence Dicky married in Singapore in 1937(6), he was Captain RHP Addison and gave his address as 38 Roland Gardens, South Kensington (his parent’s address).

Compiled & Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010 

(1)Kelly’s Directories

(2)Telephone Directories

(3)“The Annals of the Addington Family:” Belfield,E.M.G.(1959)

(4)FamilySearch.org

(5)London Gazette

(6)Hart’s Army List

(7)FreeBMD.com

(8)Singapore Times

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